Long shadow of Nazi past

The regional elections are turning into a nightmare for Gerhard Schröder. The Red-Green coalition is paying a heavy price for the last year’s “third way” policies. And for good reason. Not only has the government reneged on most of the reforms it promised but, despite Oskar Lafontaine’s warnings, it has imposed unprecedented austerity on a country already suffering from record unemployment. Ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and eight years after reunification, this crisis marks the completion of Germany’s return to normal. The “economic miracle” is over. The Federal Republic is encountering the same difficulties as its neighbours. Its famous political stability is now a thing of the past. In a matter of months the chancellor’s popularity has plunged as low as his predecessor’s after 16 years in office.

by Christian Gerlach

The further the Nazi period recedes into the past, the more it is coming to dominate public debate and historical research in Germany itself. This is not as strange as it may seem. The enormity of the crimes committed by the Third Reich ensures that most major public issues are likely to be (...)